Eight people dead in Mississippi shootings after domestic dispute

A man who was arrested after a house-to-house shooting spree that killed eight in rural Mississippi on Saturday night, including a sheriff’s deputy, was mad about an argument with his wife and family, according to the local paper.

“I ain’t fit to live, not after what I done,” Willie Corey Godbolt, 35, told The Clarion-Ledger as he was handcuffed by law enforcement.

The bodies of three females and Lincoln County sheriff’s deputy William Durr, 36, were recovered from the first house, as well as two boys from a second house and a man and a woman from a third, according to The Clarion-Ledger. The first two shootings were at houses in Brookhaven and the third was in Bogue Chitto, about 15 miles south. Both towns are south of Jackson.

While it’s unclear whether any of the people who died were related to Godbolt, investigators say he had gone on the spree after police had received a call about a domestic dispute, according to the Associated Press. And in his interview with the local newspaper, he said he had gone to one of the homes to talk about retrieving his children.

“My pain wasn’t designed for him. He was just there,” Godbolt told The Clarion-Ledger while speaking of the deputy. “We was talking about me trying to take the children home … somebody called the officer … that’s what they do, they intervene. It cost him his life. I’m sorry.”

He told the paper he had hoped to die, saying, “Suicide by cop was my intention.”

He was treated at the scene for a bullet wound, though authorities did not say how he was shot, and then he was driven to a hospital.

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Eight people were killed in shootings in rural Lincoln County, Mississippi, on Saturday. Photo by Flickr user Onasill ~ Bill Badzo